By Emmerson Campbell
The national men’s Sevens rugby team departed on Sunday night for Chula Vista, San Diego where they will be encamped with the USA Rugby team before they head to Hong Kong on March 17 to participate in the HSBC Sevens World Series scheduled from March 23 to 25.
The six-time NACRA champions, who are unrivaled locally when it comes to the accomplishments of any team sport, will be on the highest stage of rugby facing off with 23 of the world’s best Sevens teams. The Hong Kong tournament is very important to Guyana as it is one of the pathways to qualifying for the 2016 Olympics in Brazil. Hong Kong will also serve as a qualification tournament that can possibly make Guyana a core team.
Players on core teams become semi-professionals and are paid as semi-professionals. Core teams are also invited and accommodated free of cost to all of the HSBC tournaments.
Meanwhile, the realistic goal of the team is to finish in the top five of the bottom 12 teams. If the team over achieves and finishes in the top three of the bottom 12 teams it will automatically become a core team.
The local ruggers earned a place at the HSBC Sevens World Series after they won their sixth consecutive North America Caribbean Rugby Association (NACRA) title last year November in Barbados by demolishing the Cayman Islands by 29 points to nil.
The team is made up of captain Ryan Gonsalves, vice- captain Richard Staglon, Elwin Chase, player/coach Theodore Henry, Claudius Butts, Vallon Adams, Christopher Singh, Rickford Cummings, Walter George, UK-based Christopher Giles, Australia-based Kevin McKenzie and Ronald Mayers.
The team will be managed by Mike McCormack while the Technical Director will be Los Angeles-based Guyanese Conrad Arjune. Barrington Browne is the team’s physiotherapist.
